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1. Introduction
This study aimed to identify learning style preferences of the students at SMPN 1 Dagangan Madiun and their implication to English teaching. SMPN 1
Dagangan is one of the state secondary schools in Madiun Regency. It is located in Banjarsari Kulon Village, about 15 km from Madiun City, East Java. The
school has 632 students and most of their parents are farmers. Living in a village makes the students tend to be ashamed and low motivated, especially in learning
English. Thus they have many kinds of learning styles. The ways how to learn are influenced by their backgrounds; where they live, what their parents are and how
they do their lives. In the process of learning the language, there are many variables that
determine the success of a language learner. Language learning success is associated with a range of factors including age, gender, motivation, intelligence,
anxiety level, learning strategies and language learning styles Sharp, 2004. In a class made up of various learning styles, it is always necessary for the teachers,
particularly the language teachers to identify, respect and work on the diversity of the learners’ differences.
2. Background
The success of teaching-learning process is not only determined by how the teachers teach but also, most importantly and principally is determined by how
the students learn. Language learning styles is one of the main factors that help determine how the students learn a second or foreign language.
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A previous study was conducted by Stapa 2003 concerning teachers’ awareness of ESP students’ learning preferences. In this study, it was discovered
that students’ tendency towards working in pairs or small groups was well perceived by teachers. In a more recent study, Felder and Silverman 2005
formulated a learning style model that comprises of four dimensions including sensing and intuitive learners, visual and verbal learners, active and reflective
learners as well as sequential and global learners. Later, another study was conducted by Hoque 2008 who investigated the learners’ strategies and
preferences in learning EFL. It was discovered that most of the students studied English due to its curriculum requirement, and that they studied English just for
the sake of examinations. Based on the previous studies, it is necessary that this study be done using
a slightly different set of sample. Therefore, this study was carried out in SMP Negeri 1 Dagangan Kab. Madiun which is located in the rural area where the
majority of the students find that English is not a major priority and learning it would only add to their burden while studying for the examinations.
2.1. Problem of the Study Based on the research statement, the writer raised some questions research
questions as follows:
1. Do the three level competence Students have different learning styles? 2. What is the kind of learning style mostly applied by the high level
competence Students?
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3. What is the kind of learning style mostly applied by the middle level competence Students?
4. What is the kind of learning style mostly applied by low level competence students?
5. Are there any differences of using learning styles by the students based on gender?
3. Literature Review
